Thursday, November 29, 2012

This past Monday, the Oregon Ducks received their first votes in both the Associated Press (media) and USA Today/Coaches men's basketball poll, though they stayed out of the top 25 in both rankings.The Ducks would be rated 31st in the AP poll and 38th in the coaches' rankings.No support this week in either poll for any of Oregon's other three men's Division I collegiate basketball teams.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Earl Carroll, the doo-wop singer best remembered as the lead vocalist with The Cadillacs who recorded their legendary 1955 hit "Speedo," which became "Mr. Earl's" nickname, passed away on Sunday at a New York City nursing home at the age of 75.

Lucille Bliss, the voice actress best remembered for being the voice of Crusader Rabbit on the same named pioneering 1949 television cartoon series and Smurfette on the 1981-92 NBC (and Hanna-Barbera-produced) animation series The Smurfs, passed away on November 8 at Costa Mesa, California at the age of 96.

In the aftermath of Oregon's road domination of Oregon State in Saturday's Civil War contest, the Ducks remained at #5 in the Bowl Championship Series standings released on Sunday. Despite the lopsided defeat, the Beavers only dropped down a spot in the BCS standings to #15. With their win over Southern California, top-ranked Notre Dame clinched a berth in January's BCS National Championship Game. Alabama, Georgia, and Florida remained second through fourth in the BCS standings.

Associated Press media poll: Oregon at dropped a spot to #6 while Oregon State remained steady at #16.

USA Today/Coaches poll: Both teams remained right were they were, the Ducks at #4 and the Beavers at #17.

Ricky Ray (who had played on two previous championship teams at Edmonton) threw two touchdown passes while Chad Kackert, named the game's Most Valuable Player, picked up 195 all-purpose yards as the Toronto Argonauts won the 100th Grey Cup Final, 35-22 over the Calgary Stampeders.

The victory was the sixteenth such title for the Argos, more than any other team.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

At Las Vegas:Cashmere Wright scored 17 points on Saturday night, 15 of them on five three-pointers as the Cincinnati Bearcats (#22 in the Associated Press poll; 6-0) defeated the Oregon Ducks (5-1) 77-66 to win the championship game of the Global Sports Classic.

At Corvallis, Oregon:Kenjon Barner ran for 198 yards and two touchdowns as the Oregon Ducks (#5 in the Bowl Championship Series standings and Associated Press poll, #4 in the USA Today/Coaches poll; 11-1 overall, 8-1 in Pac-12 play) broke open a close game and won the 116th edition of the Civil War Game running away from the home-standing Oregon State Beavers (#14 in the BCS, #16 in the AP poll, #17 in the Coaches rankings; 8-3, 6-3) 48-24 on Saturday. With Stanford's road win over UCLA, the Ducks' chances of playing for the Pac-12 title evaporated. Still, Oregon still has a slim outside shot of playing for the BCS National Championship. It appears, though, that the Ducks will likely gain an at-large berth for a BCS bowl.The victory was the Ducks' fifth straight over the Beavers.De'Anthony Thomas ran for three Oregon touchdowns (2, 5, and 29 yards).

Friday, November 23, 2012

Larry Hagman, the actor best remembered for his portrayal of businessman J. R. Ewing on the long-running original version of the television serialized dramatic series Dallas and who reprised the role in the recent cable TV revival, passed away on Friday afternoon at a Dallas hospital following a bout with cancer at age 81.The son of legendary Broadway star Mary Martin, Mr. Hagman also played the role of Captain, then Major, Tony Nelson on the 1965-70 sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, in which he subsenquently married (and became master of) the sexy genie played by Barbara Eden.But it was as one of the sons of Southfork Ranch (and Ewing Oil) patriarch Jock Ewing (played by the late Jim Davis) that Larry gained world-wide fame (or infamy). Best remebered was the 1980 episode in which J. R. was shot. Months later, it was revealed that it was J. R.'s mistress, played by Mary Crosby, who committed the foul deed.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

At Portland, Oregon:Tanner Riley made all eight shots (including all four three-pointers) from the field and all three free throws for a career-high 23 points as the Portland Pilots (2-2) downed the visiting Portland State Vikings (1-2) 81-60 on Wednesday.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

At Eugene, Oregon:Tony Woods scored a career-high 17 points while E. J. Singler and Dominic Artis added 11 and 10, respectively, as the Oregon Ducks (4-0) remained unbeaten on Monday with their 67-45 home win over Alabama's Jacksonville State (3-2)

Monday, November 19, 2012

At San Francisco:In his first NFL start at quarterback, playing in place of the injured Alex Smith, Colin Kaepernick completed 16 of 23 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns (three yards to Vernon Davis, 10 yards to Michael Crabtree) while Aldon Smith registered five sacks (increasing his total for the season to a league-leading 15) as the San Francisco 49ers (7-2-1) blew out the visiting Chicago Bears 32-7 (7-3) on Monday night.

Following their home overtime setback at the hands of Stanford, the Oregon Ducks dropped three spots to #5 in the Bowl Championship Series standings that were released on Sunday night. Notre Dame becomes the new #1 team in the country (first time in the BCS Era, first time overall since 1993), followed by three Southeastern Conference schools---Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The Ducks, who were #1 in both the Associated Press media and USA Today/Coaches polls, fell to #5 and #4, respectively.After their Saturday annihilation of visiting California, the Oregon State Beavers remained steady in the BCS standings, remaining at #15. They dropped a spot to #16 in the AP poll, while remaining at #17 in the coaches' rankings.

Both games were played on Sunday as the Canadian Football League's Grey Cup semifinals took place.At Montreal:Ricky Ray threw for 399 yards and a touchdown while Marcus Bell picked off a pair of passes as the Toronto Argonauts knocked off the Montreal Alouettes 27-20 on the road in the East Division Final.At Vancouver, British Columbia:Kevin Glenn threw for three touchdowns as the Calgary Stampeders locked up a spot in the 100th Grey Cup Final with a 34-29 West Division Final road win over the defending champions British Columbia Lions.This coming Sunday will mark the 100th edition of the Grey Cup Final, as the Toronto Argonauts battle the Calgary Stampeders at Toronto's Rogers Centre.It will be the third time that the Argos and Stamps have met in the title game (Calgary won in Vancouver in 1971 by a score of 14-11, Toronto won at Winnipeg in 1991 by a 36-21 score).

Sunday, November 18, 2012

At Corvallis, Oregon:Quarterback Sean Mannion threw for 325 yards and four touchdowns while running back Terron Ward ran for 128 yards and two scores as the Oregon State Beavers (#15 in the Associated Press poll, #17 in the USA Today/Coaches poll; 8-2 overall, 6-2 in Pac-10 play) demolished the visiting California Golden Bears (3-9, 2-7) 62-14 on Saturday.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

At Eugene, Oregon:Jordan Williamson kicked a 37-yard field goal on overtime as the Stanford Cardinal (#13 in the most recent Bowl Championship Series rankings, #14 in the Associated Press media poll and #13 in the USA Today/Coaches' counterpart; 9-2 overall, 7-1 in Pac-10 play) knocked off the previously-unbeaten Oregon Ducks (#2 in BCS, #1 in both the AP and coaches' polls; 10-1, 7-1) 17-14 on the road Saturday night, severely damaging the Ducks' chances of playing in the BCS Championship game. With a win at UCLA (who knocked off USC to win the Pac-12's South Division title) next week, the Cardinal can lock up the North Division crown and host the conference title game with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line.Notre Dame (11-0), currently ranked third in the BCS standings, now have a chance to climb to the top of those rankings after their earlier Saturday beat-down of Wake Forest at home.With top-ranked (BCS) Kansas State knocked off at Baylor, the Ducks had a shot to move to the top of those BCS standings, only to see those plans gone awry.

At New York City:Devon Collier scored a career-best 27 points and grabbed 14 rebounds on Friday as the Oregon State Beavers (3-1) defeated the Purdue Boilermakers (1-3) in the 66-58 in the third-place game of the 2K Sports Classic.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

At Portland, Oregon:The Portland Pilots (1-1), in their home opener, nosed out the visiting Idaho State Bengals (0-2) 51-48 on Thursday. Junior forward Ryan Nicholas scored a game-high 22 points for the victorious Pilots. Portland's defense limited the Bengals to 40% shooting from the floor.

At New York City:Rodney Cooper connected on a three-point shot with 12.2 seconds remaining as the Alabama Crimson Tide (3-0) held off the Oregon State Beavers (2-1) 65-62 in a semifinal match of the 2K Sports Classic tournament on Thursday. Trevor Lacey scored 20 points to pace the Crimson Tide while Devon Collier came off the bench to score 21 for the Beavers.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Canadian Football League's Grey Cup playoffs commenced with two games played on Sunday.At Toronto:Quarterback Ricky Ray threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as the Toronto Argonauts defeated the visiting Edmonton Eskimoes 42-26 in the East Division semifinal game. The Argos will travel to Montreal to face the Alouettes in next Sunday's East Division final.At Calgary, Alberta:Drew Tate threw for 363 yards and two touchdowns--- one of them, a 68-yarder to Romby Bryant with 19 seconds remaining---as the Calgary Stampeders pulled out a 36-30 West Division semifinal home win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Stamps will travel to Vancouver for next Sunday's West Division final against the British Columbia Lions.The winners of next Sunday games will play in the 100th Grey Cup Final at Toronto's Rogers Centre on November 25.

Following their Saturday road win at California, combined with Texas A&M's victory at Alabama, the Oregon Ducks climbed up a spot to #2 in the Bowl Championship Series standings that were released on Sunday. The Ducks trail only Kansas State while Notre Dame moved up to #3, with Alabama now at #4 and Georgia at #5. The Ducks now top both the Associated Press media poll (garnering 45 of a possible 60 first-place votes) and the USA Today/Coaches poll (44 of the 59 available first-place votes).Following their tough road defeat at Stanford, the Oregon State Beavers dropped five place to #16 in the BCS standings, two spots to #15 in the AP poll, and five places to #17 in the coaches' poll.

At San Francisco:After each team missed a field-goal attempt in overtime, the visiting St. Louis Rams (3-5-1) and San Francisco 49ers (6-2-1) battled to the National Football League's first draw in four years, 24-24 on Sunday.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

At Berkeley, California:Quarterback Markus Mariota overcame a brief injury to throw for a career-high 377 yards and a school-record-tying six touchdowns as the Oregon Ducks (ranked #3 in the Bowl Championship Series standings and #2 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches polls; 10-0 overall, 7-0 in Pac-12 play) broke open a game that they had led 24-17 by scoring 35 unanswered points en route to a 59-17 Saturday night pasting of the California Golden Bears (3-8, 2-6) on the road. The Ducks have now won thirteen straight games, the longest current such streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

At Eugene, Oregon:Tony Woods scored 14 points, while Damyean Dotson added 13, E. J. Singler 12 (to go with eight rebounds), and Dominic Artis 10 as the Oregon Ducks (1-0) ended the game on a 16-6 run as they defeated the visiting Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (0-1) 83-73 on Saturday in the men's college basketball regular-season opener for both schools.

At Athens, Ohio:D. J. Cooper and Nick Kellogg (in his case, off the bench) each scored 18 points as the Ohio Bobcats (1-0) smashed opened what was a 33-33 halftime stalemate and demolished the visiting Portland Pilots (0-1) 81-52 on Saturday in the men's collegiate basketball regular-season opener for both schools. The Bobcats outscored the Pilots 48-19 in the second half.

At Palo Alto, California:Quarterback Kevin Hogan completed 22 of 29 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns in his first collegiate start as the Stanford Cardinal (#14 in the Bowl Championship Series standings; #16 in the Associated Press poll, #15 in the USA Today/Coaches poll; 8-2 overall, 6-1 in Pac-12 play) kept their hopes of winning the Pacific-12 Conferences Northern Division title (and, in all likelyhood, the right to host the Conference championship game) by upending the visiting Oregon State Beavers (#11 in the BCS rankings, #13 in the AP poll, #12 in the Coaches' poll; 7-2, 5-2) 27-23 on Saturday, overcoming four turnovers in the process.

Frank Peppiatt, the Canadian-born producer and co-creator of the long-runnnig comedy-musical television variety series Hee Haw, passed away on Wednesday at Ponte Verda Beach, Florida from bladder cancer at age 85.

The series, (a countrified version of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In) which started on CBS as a summer replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1969, became an unexpected hit.

The show, co-hosted by Buck Owens (who left the series in 1986) and Roy Clark, and which starred, amongst others, Junior Samples, Grandpa Jones, Lulu Roman, Archie Campbell, and Gordie Tapp, was still pulling in good ratings when CBS dropped it, along with the remaining vestiges of its' rural-oriented series in 1971.

Mr Peppiatt, along with fellow Canadian native John Aylesworth and another parter Nick Vanoff decided to place the show in first-run syndication, where it remained until 1992.

Friday, November 09, 2012

At Portland, Oregon:The Portland State Vikings (1-0) defeated visiting Pacific Oregon (o-1), a Division III school from Forest Grove, Oregon, 77-58 on Friday night. It was the Vikings' regular-season opener, while the visiting Boxers counted this game as an exhibition. Dre Winston scored 16 points to pace Portland State.

At Corvallis, Oregon:Roberto Nelson scored 22 points on Friday night as the Oregon State Beavers (1-0) defeated the visiting Niagara Purple Eagles (0-1) 102-83 in the 2K Sports Classic. It was the regular-season men's college basketball opener for both schools.

Cleve Duncan, lead singer and co-founder of The Penguins, a Los Angeles-based rhythm-and-blues vocal group best remembered for their 1954 recording of the classic crossover hit "Earth Angel," passed away this week at the age of 77.No further details on Mr. Duncan's passing were made available at the time of this posting.The original Penguins were formed late in 1953 in Los Angeles when Mr. Duncan was singing in a talent show and was approached by songwriter and ex-Hollywood Flames singer Curtis Williams. The twosome agreed to form a new group. The other original members were Dexter Tisby from Cleve's Fremont High School and Bruce Tate from Jefferson High, where Mr. Williams attended.They took the group's name from the cartoon penguin depicted in advertisements for Kool cigarettes."Earth Angel," a song that Curtis Williams co-authored with Jesse Belvin, was the 'B' side of the group's second Dootone Records release. Nevertheless, that song would receive considerable airplay on many radio stations that played rhythm and blues music, rather than "Hey Senorita," the original 'A' side."Earth Angel" climbed up to #1 on Billboard's R&B charts while climbing up to #8 on the pop charts in early 1955 despite heavy competition from The Crew Cuts on Mercury Records, who, after the Penguins' disc became a big hit, became interested in buying the boys' contract from Dootone.Buck Ram, the group's manager, would only agree to letting Mercury sign them if the label would also sign another group he managed---the Platters.The Platters would go on to become the best-selling vocal group of the remaining of the 1950s while the Penguins never had another major chart hit.The original group broke up in the late 1950s, but Cleve would revive the group, becoming lead singer throughout various re-incarnations of the Penguins.Here's the classic, original 1954 recording on Dootone records out of Los Angeles of "Earth Angel" by the Penguins.Rest in peace, Cleve.

Lee McPhail, a former president and general manager of the Baltimore Orioles as well as GM of the New York Yankees before becoming president of baseball's American League (1974-83) and who was the oldest living Baseball Hall of Famer, passed away on Thursday night at his Delray Beach, Florida at the age of 95.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Darrell K. Royal, the retired legendary head football coach at the University of Texas (1957-76), known for his folksy, simplistic approach to life as much as for his creative wishbone offenses and two national championships, passed away on Wednesday morning at Austin, Texas as the age of 88.Coach Royal had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and had recently suffered a fall at an assisted living center where he was receiving care.In 20 years as the Longhorns' head coach, Darrell compiled a record of 167 wins against 47 defeats and five draws.On his watch, Texas won 11 Southwest Conference titles, ten Cotton Bowl championships, and two national crowns (1963 and 1969), going 11-0 in each of those two instances.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Following their Saturday slugfest win at Southern California, the Oregon Ducks climbed past Notre Dame into #3 in the Bowl Championship Series standings that were released on Sunday. Alabama and Kansas State remain at numbers one and two respectively.

Sunday, November 04, 2012

At Vancouver, British Columbia:Andrew Harris ran for 57 yards and a touchdown on nine carries as the British Columbia Lions (13-5) defeated the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders (8-10) 17-6 on Saturday night in the Canadian Football League regular-season finale for both playoff-bound clubs.Here are the match-ups for the Grey Cup Playoffs which begin next Sunday.Next Sunday, all times Pacific:Eastern Division Semifinal:Edmonton @ Toronto, 10:00 AMWestern Division Semifinal:Saskatchewan @ Calgary, 1:30PM Sunday, November 18:Eastern Division Final:Edmonton-Toronto winner @ Montreal, 10:00 AMWestern Division Final:Saskatchewan-Calgary winner @ British Columbia, 1:30 PMThe winners of the divisional finals will play in the 100th edition of the Grey Cup Final on November 25 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, with starting time at 3:00 PM Pacific Standard Time.

At Corvallis, Oregon:Quarterback Cody Vaz overcame a shaky start to throw for 267 yards and three touchdowns as the Oregon State Beavers (#11 in the BCS rankings, #13 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches polls; 7-1 overall, 5-1 in Pac-12 play) defeated the visiting Arizona State Sun Devils (5-4, 3-3) 36-26 on Saturday night as the Beavers bounced back after suffering their first defeat of the season last Saturday against Washington.

At Los Angeles:Kenjon Barner ran for a school single-game record 321 yards and five touchdowns while Markus Mariota threw for four scores on Saturday as the Oregon Ducks (#4 in the BCS rankings, #2 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/Coaches polls; 9-0 overall, 6-0 in Pac-12 play) outlasted the Southern California Trojans (#17 in BCS, #18 in the media poll, #17 in the coaches' poll; 6-3, 4-3)